[1.0.3.2] Defiance of melee builds - 5 mins facetanking Ravager and ofc no bufs and banners cruci

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
1

In honor of all glorious melee builds that died in never ending balancing crusade

I wanted to try something like this from the time they changed Beronath sword conversion back in 1.0.0.8 or so but didn’t had will to do it cuz inevitable destiny of all good melee builds in GD is to die under the heavy smash of nerf hammer. This one will probably share similar fate.

So with out further delay I present to you: Defiance of melee builds - Physical dmg DW Witchblade

Ravager of souls: Best kill time 5.06 facetanking all the way

CNMYNP0.jpg909×768

(Be careful of his ground AoE fumble, if he uses it move from it, if you stay really close to him all the time there is high chance he will not use it)

Beauty of this build concept is in it versatility and flexibility. You can with more or less success apply this setup to other class combos (Blademaster for instance) and also concept has huge margin between offense and defense.

Here I will present two, more or less, border cases, one offensive, used to finish no buffs and banners cruci, and one defensive used to facetank and kill Ravager. Ofc, this does not mean that build cant be made more offensive or more defensive with some changes (ie changing relic to menhirs bastion on defensive setup for more defense) but I took these two setups as showcase examples.
Also wort mentioning here is that setup for Ravager is dedicated setup made exclusively to kill ravager of Souls (wanted ravager of Minds but made mistake in choosing) and thus is concentrated to counter his atc dmg types: physical, vitality, bleed and aether. With ravager of Minds you should concentrate on: physical, elemental, poison and bleed. In both cases highest emphasis is on physical and thus having high armor value and phys resistance is of uttermost importance coupled with high DA (above 3k).

No buffs and banners cruci with offensive setup

EjRhNkG.jpg904×768

(if you take closer look at picture you might notice that I forgot to turn on might of beronath toggle thus had effectively 25%-30% less dmg, still it was enough)

Core of the build concept is Beronath sword and its conversion of elemental and chaos dmg to physical. We use it to convert all elemental dmg from gear and devotions and chaos dmg from Solaels Witchfire and potentially possession to physical dmg. Also Warborn armor set with its excellent offensive/defensive balance is of uttermost value to the build.

Offensive, no buffs and banners cruci setup:

Auras, BoD, DM and warborn on.

Grim tools: http://www.grimtools.com/calc/m23n7LEN

Sidenote: Depending on gear rolls tune your investment in squad tactic to achieve 200% atc speed. To improve your freeze resistance, if you find it insufficient, invest more points in Scars of battle.

Dummy kill time for offensive setup is 28s.

Worth mentioning is that due to crucible nature devotions bindings are deliberately made like they are in grim tools link, ie to have better AoE clear Blind furry is bound to cadence and assassins mark to MA. Also 12 points is invested in FF for that extra cadence target and thus higher chance of critical which will lead to more consistent procing of blind furry. Single target dmg vise binding devos like that is dps lost, but since cruci is much more about AoE than single target it pays of to go like that.

Defensive, Ravager of souls dedicated setup:

Auras, BoD, DM and warborn on.

Disclaimer: Ravager of souls dedicated setup is not legit in terms of used items. Only one ring on this setup is legit, other one is duped and represents non legit copy.

Grim tools: http://www.grimtools.com/calc/4Vxbx9lN

Sidenote: When fighting against ravager you will need to use consumables for energy recovery, he is highly resistant to energy leach so arcane spark and tonics will not be sufficient. I used Royal Jelly Extract and Arcanum Oil. Even with that you will need to monitor and wisely use your energy resources.

Dont expect easy fight with ravager, tho first half is somewhat easy and more forgiving even one mistake in second half will probably get you killed. Of uttermost importance is to keep him under effect of War cry all the time so cast it as son as it gets of CD.
Time your heals and try to have one out of CD all the time so you can counter his heavy bursts, rely as much as you can on ADCTH to get healed, dont panic. For reference in fist half of the fight you dont even need to use healing tonic and will, if played well, use BoD only to refresh it, ADCTH does the trick. Preserve your energy, dont cast CoF to often, good pace is to cast CoF once on every 2nd cast of War cry. Use energy tonic as son as it gets of CD. Piece of cake when you get used to it after few initial fails :stuck_out_tongue:

In closing

Some time ago I told to one of my friends that I will probably never make melee build again cuz simply is not worth it. Considering time and effort invested, coupled with average life span of that type of builds, making and sharing melee build that is somewhat above average is simply waste of time. Casters and hybrids are much more rewarding, easier to make, easier to gear, easier to play and they live forever. So is there a point in going melee? Im not sure, but my friend says that we do that for honor, so this is, like title says, in honor of all those that are gone in blaze of glory.

Have fun, while you can :wink:

Peace out!

2

Reserved for w/e.

3

Tips fedora

4

My F5 key is gonna wear out sooner or later. :stuck_out_tongue:

Edit: Beautiful. Didn’t you hint about this build a week or two ago? It kind of looks like what I thought I might see - and makes me feel a bit sad I didn’t try to work it out myself with GDStash (Warborn set has given me the finger so far) before you posted the whole thing.

5

I’m not sure that a build that can facetank all the toughest content (including superbosses) and was built around a weapon that was massively redesigned and buffed for melee builds fairly recently (1.0.1.0 - June 2017) makes the best “argument” that melee builds are chronically underpowered from constant and inevitable nerfs. :rolleyes:

Even though the strongest melee builds are no longer the extreme outliers that they used to be (such as early patch DW sabos), as I mentioned in the Gladiator builds thread I think the sheer variety of high-end melee builds we have now shows that we’re currently living in a new renaissance for melee builds - it’s so much more interesting and diverse now than the days of only DW BMs/sabos and S&B WB/Mandos, especially with the plethora of conversion options now available. If someone held a gun to my head and forced me to only explore different melee builds without getting bored, I’d much rather be doing it now than under any other patch to date.

Of course a huge chunk of the credit goes to yourself, jajaja, Superfluff, et al., so kudos for adding another great build to the list!

6

Thx and lol at F5 :slight_smile:

Maybe I did and maybe I was thinking about something else :slight_smile:

Thx :slight_smile:

And just to clarify my statement, not just that they are uderpowered compared to casters and hybrid casters, but also they are being systematically killed as son as they become public.
I really dont think that beronath sword was originally made for melee build usage, especially considering energy cost of the skill he finds much more use in hybrid casters builds.
Also about melee build renaissance I will just say that for every viable melee build now I will make at least couple viable casters/hybrid casters builds that are less gear dependent, much less gimicky and much easier to play.

7

Well, dicks. My computer is jacked up right now so there’s no way I’ll get my character to a working level before they hit this with the nerf bat. I guess this is karma getting me back for causing previous things to be “fixed.” :eek:

Solid, sleek design. +1 for using Chariot of the Dead. Simpler and more effective than my build. (There are so many goofy possibilities right now that it actually took me effort to theorycraft this build when it’s just right in your face.)

Maybe I’ll just do a straight PRM Mage Hunter next…

8

Sick build JoV, would love to see a blademaster variation as well :slight_smile:

9

Txh :slight_smile:

Btw if you want PRM mage hunter I have that also :stuck_out_tongue:

Thx :slight_smile:

If this one doesn’t get killed in the next patch Ill do a BM variation :wink:

10

So we can basically loldps ourselves out of danger in the Ravager fight with enough lifesteal and HP to survive his burst? What year is it, 2016?

11

Nicely done JoV !
So build like this can clear gladiator crucible without buff n banner, also with offensive setup :wink:

I was a bit worried too, that my builds will get nerf hammer when I post physical commando, warder, and blademaster last time.
But reality Crate just buff it with adding chaos to physical conversion to the beronath sword :smiley:

I think they are good and kind enough to us :slight_smile:

Yeah with plethora of conversion options, it seems pra AoM release is new renaissance era for melee builds.
There’re more and more builds diversity available now.
So much options. Not to mention caster, hybrid and range playstyle :slight_smile:

12

Ah… I remember loldpsing Fabius when he was the boogeyman at the time. Good thing Ravager can’t wield a Notched Bone of a Thousand Deaths. That was the worst.

13

Impressive! But nerfs only just begun…

14

defies poor Belgo’s performance.:smiley: Poor pierce damage trying so hard

15

If you have like ~35% phys resistance and ~3.5 k armor sure you can loldps anything :smiley:

Thx :slight_smile:

Impressive? :confused: Lol dude wtf is happened to you and: I didn’t see such a sad performance… :confused:

Edit: And where is rating? :mad:

Told ya long ago, for reasons beyond my comprehension they fucked up pierce so hard :wink:

Not that this one wont be fucked as well

16

Another cadence witchblade build rekting everything… what a surprise
Cadence is OP, shield tanking is OP since 2015. just bring some variation already.

17

Shield tanking? :confused: Build doesn’t use shield.
About Cadence being OP, I really dont think it is, especially when you compare it to granted auto attacks from items like belgo strike and runic bolts or w/e is the name. Its more like other point investing AAs are weak, like FS for instance.
About bringing variations, Im not the right address for it and tbh AoM brought plenty variations already.

18

He replied like this on both my ravager threads don’t worry about it :slight_smile:

If it’s Cadence and or shield he will prob comment

19

honor and tradition: 1
capitalist imperialism: 0

the melee love is contagious :cool:

next stop:
revival of 2H melee.

too bad no more time for GD due to new raid in wow: (

20

Yea he would probably comment in the same fashion if it was SS build, like SS, cadence and shield training are OP :smiley: